Bellingham tenant advocates unveil interactive property map detailing renters’ complaints

The Bellingham renters’ advocacy group Tenants Revolt on Tuesday launched what it’s calling a “Sh*t Rental Radar” map that details housing problems in the city.

It’s an interactive map of the Bellingham and Whatcom County area designed as a resource for tenants experiencing ongoing habitability issues and property management concerns in their rental units.

“It offers transparency,” said Rebecca Quirke, head of the advocacy group Tenants Revolt. “It’s like CARFAX for renters.”

The map is accessible to the public via the Tenants Revolt website. People can scroll around it and click on glowing red dots that show properties that have been reported by current and former tenants as having problems.

Quirke said the purpose of the map is to compile a record of renter concerns and keep landlords and property management companies accountable.

“We’re moving into these places, and investing so much money to moving in, and we don’t know what the conditions are — everyone is kind of on an honor system that landlords are doing the repairs that are legally required,” Quirke said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald.

The map was built using data imported from the Whatcom County Tax Parcel Viewer website. The map is searchable by address, parcel number, property management company or landlord. You can also see what city ward a property is located in as well as which City Council member oversees that ward.

Various icons on the map indicate problematic conditions that have been reported in a unit such as mold, unusually high utility bills, a lack of heat, nonfunctioning windows, discrimination or landlord retaliation.

Dylan Albrecht designed and built the map. He grew up in Bellingham and has lived in a number of different homes with some of these issues.

“I feel like this has been a problem that everyone is aware of and everyone knows is getting worse,” Albrecht said. “And I feel like most everyone feels like they can’t do anything about it. So if there’s something that I can do about it, then I’m going to do something.”

Current or former tenants submitting information about a property can provide a blurb about their experience as well as any warnings they choose to share, such as experiences with deposit theft. Tenants can also attach supporting documentation including leases, pictures, or correspondence with landlords and/or property management companies.

Any opinions expressed are those of the tenants.

The map had more than 150 data submissions when it was launched on Oct. 17. Some of the reports date back as far as 10 years.

Specific rent increases won’t be publicly available to view as that data could be traced back to specific tenants, something Quirke says Tenants Revolt is avoiding to protect tenants from landlord retaliation. However rental cost analytics will be viewable on a larger scale for the whole city, showing the average rent increases for each year.

Quirke said there will be paths for redemption and ways for landlords to verify that they’ve made improvements to units through inspections. But she said this map still serves as a way to document reoccurring issues with properties, as some repairs prove insufficient over time.

Quirke said the goal is to be able to expand this service in other areas, duplicate the tool and share it with renters all over the country.

“Community members who haven’t rented in a really long time probably get the sense that people are exaggerating or that the conditions that they hear about are not so much the norm but really outliers,” Quirke said. “This (map) is both validating for people who are experiencing issues at their individual property but also offers a lot of context.”

A helpful tool for renters

Hanuri Kim and True Ward are first-year students at Western Washington University who signed a lease on a rental property managed by Lakeway Realty. The tenants moved out in September after just one week due to poor conditions in their unit.

Lakeway Realty responded to a request for comment after publication stating that it could not comment about specific properties but that “when Lakeway Realty does make ready turns (for new) tenant(s) we do have the properties: Professionally cleaned. Shampooed. Repairs done.”

Kim and Ward said the house did not appear to be cleaned when they moved in, with stained carpets, dusty ventilation units and visible mold. The house also had visible water damage, cracking in the walls and non-functioning windows.

The pair posted a video of the rental unit to TikTok, using comedy to detail their habitability concerns. It’s gathered more than 200,000 likes, almost 500 comments and has been shared more than 1,400 times.

Many of the comments on the video note how common experiences like this are in Bellingham rental housing.

“I KNEW this was Bellingham before I even saw the tag,” one TikTok user commented.

“I was like, ‘This looks like bham housing’ and it is ... lmaoooo,” commented another TikTok user.

Kim and Ward received help from Tenants Revolt to get out of their lease and find other housing. They both said they wish they would have had access to a resource like the interactive map prior to signing a lease and moving in.

“If we had the resources, we would have been aware of (the issues with the unit) and could have addressed it to Lakeway and asked, ‘Did you fix all these problems?’” Hanuri said.

Aidan Hersh has been a tenant for more than three years of another property managed by Lakeway Realty. His home was recently found to have 12 code violations after he and his roommates requested an inspection by the city. The house was reinspected a second time and eight more code violations were found.

“This is happening all over Bellingham and the only reason we don’t hear about it is because most of the people it’s happening to, or a large portion at least, are students who have schoolwork or a job to take care of,” Hersh said.

Hersh said the home’s single-pane windows freeze on the interior side of the glass, nonfunctional bathroom ventilation has caused mold growth, the cement ceilings are slowly collapsing and the front porch steps are rotting through. An upstairs bathroom leak also burst through the ceiling of the bedroom below, making that bedroom unlivable.

Many of those issues have been ongoing for years, Hersh told The Herald. Despite not seeing any repairs made until months after they were reported to Lakeway, their rent has been increased by 45% over the past two years.

Issues with the property date back to at least 2015, according to emails acquired via a public records request made by the tenants. At one point, the city attempted to condemn the home due to a fire, emails indicate.

Quirke said Hersh’s rental is a great example of a home that has needed repairs for years while tenants have moved in and out. She said the map could help keep a centralized record of these violations.

“We literally just want to live in a house and that’s it,” Hersh said.